I have a confession. I’m a bit of a wimp bloody coward. I’m afraid of the dark, heights, small spaces, flying, dogs, flying dogs, dinosaurs… The list is pretty much endless. I’m also not the biggest fan of horror films. So when I was asked by HeyUGuys to watch Paranormal Activity 2, then go ghost hunting afterwards, even I was surprised that I said ‘yes’.
After watching the film, we* were all already in something of a heightened emotional state, so when we arrived at the London Tombs, the venue for our spooky escapades, even the most cynical members of our group were willing to keep an open mind.
Entry to the tombs is by a heavy metal door, leading into a series of vaulted chambers, then (via the gift shop) into a holding room. Waiting for someone to brief us, it became very apparent which members of the group were students and competition winners, all of whom were sat quietly, while the contingent of journalists and bloggers plundered the box of cakes on the craft services table in the corner.
As we fuelled up on coffee and apple turnovers, we received a briefing. Over the next few hours we would get a tour of the tombs and an introduction to the ‘scientific’ equipment used in the ghost hunt. Then the lights in the tombs would be turned off, and we’d be taken into various rooms, each with a medium, who would try to contact the dead on our behalf.
The curious thing about the London Tombs is that they’re part historical landmark, and part live-action haunted house. This made for a somewhat peculiar tour, as our guide, Mark, the manager of the tombs spoke about the site’s use, dating back to Roman times, as well as notable ‘ghost sightings’ in the last few years; his descriptions enhanced by the numerous blood-soaked mannequins, Viking long boats and stuffed animals situated throughout the building.
Astute readers will have noticed some of the techniques being used to prime us for the forthcoming scare-fest: show us a scary movie, take us to a foreboding place, tell us spooky stories, then let the ghost hunt commence, and do so late at night, when our resistance to all this will be at its lowest. They even had the good sense to outnumber the inherently cynical press contingent with willing, believing volunteers in the students and competition winners.
Consequently, by the time we got round to our instruction in the ‘tools’ used by the ghost hunters, most of the group seemed quite willing to believe that they worked. This first became apparent when everyone used the divining rods, when an entire room of people chanted in unison ‘show me yes’, and the rods moved. As the chant changed to ‘show me no’, the rods moved once more. How much of this movement came from spirits in the room, and how much from unconscious movements of the users own muscles is unclear, but the movement was certainly different. Something similar happened when we used crystals pendants to answer questions, with the stone rotating one way for yes, and the opposite for no.
After this a few members of the group gathered around a table, and placed their hands lightly on a glass. As one of the ghost hunters asked ‘the spirits’ to move the glass around the table. Initially this wasn’t as successful as had been hoped, with the glass remaining stationary. Eventually a new set of volunteers convened at the table, and after a few more minutes the glass moved, tracing a circle around the tabletop.
Finally, we moved on to a brief run through of the more high-tech equipment. Essentially, this equipment consisted of an off-the-shelf EMF detector, commonly used by electricians, and a radio receiver designed to pick up ‘white noise’**. The instruction in using these devices was swift and vague, and as such it would have been next to impossible to tell whether they ‘worked’ or not.
After another short break, and a brief pause to grab a night vision camera (and a few more apple turnovers), we began the ghost hunt proper. Before we did so, however, one of our group, Tom, experienced several of the lights temporarily going off in the toilet. Unfortunately, he was the only witness to this, but it was a good start to the shenanigans.
Heading back down into the tombs, the first thing that was abundantly clear was that the lights had been turned off. Yes, I may be an illiterate coward, stuffed full of apple turnovers, but even I can recognise darkness when I see it. We were first taken to ‘The Viking Room’, so called because it housed a partial replica of a longboat.
Within a few moments of sitting in the room, Tom, the chap who had the scare in the toilet, began to hear noises: screams, and growling from the corner. No matter how sceptical you are, and how easy it is to rationalise – we were under the London Bridge, and the ‘screams’ were police sirens, and the growling simply traffic driving over the bridge – it’s still somewhat chilling.
Next we were shepherded into the adjacent room, where we carried out a séance. To make this a little more creepy, this was held in a room with heads on spikes, and a terrifying, life-sized model ox. As we stood round, holding hands, out medium tried his best to call forth the spirits of the tombs. Meanwhile, Tom, our excitable ghostly lightning rod, had returned to the Viking room with another medium, to try using a Ouija board. As Tom ‘spoke’ with a barely-literate ghost child (aged eight, apparently), one of the people involved in our séance was hit by a falling stone. This may seem like something fairly minor when relayed as an incidental sentence in a long account of the evening, but it sent a chill through those involved.
So far so Most haunted. Excitable people, running around in the dark, finding ghosts and ghouls where there is nothing but an excitable group, an easily explained sound, and a slowly crumbling building. Nothing we had seen so far was beyond explanation, and much of it was almost certainly a product of group hysteria.
Then it was on to the next room, a long corridor, decked out to look like a medieval street. At first we held another séance. This time, the medium asked ‘the spirits’ to rock people back and forth, and to raise their hands. Much like with the Ouija board, this sort of ‘request’ acts as an instruction to tired, susceptible people, who act upon it in an almost unconscious fashion.
After this we were asked to sit along the corridor, spaced out on either side, a few feet from one another. Sat opposite Ryan Lambie from Den of Geek, and Kelly Alyse from Blogomatic3000, I was filming on a night vision camera. Initially, this was somewhat mundane, but then the medium mentioned seeing a fog down the corridor. At the same time, my camera, a small mini-DV camera, with an auto focus, that was trained on Kelly began to blur. As I panned round to my left, I had a pristine shot of Ryan, and to the right, a clear shot down the corridor, but for a few seconds Kelly was out of focus. I have no idea why.
Keep an eye on the site over the next few days for a chance to see footage from the event.
*A motley collection of journos, bloggers, students and contest winners
**Radio static.
